My Flame

The song he thought was the hit

Bobby’s debut album was finished before “What You Won’t Do for Love” existed. As he told NPR in 2005, TK Records founder Henry Stone said: “I like the album but I’m just not hearing the hit.” Bobby reportedly believed he already had one in “My Flame.” TK went with the new song instead, and it became his signature.

The single

Clouds followed with “My Flame” as a single in September 1979, in an edit of 3:45. It reached No. 40 on the Billboard R&B chart. In the UK the song appeared as the B-side of “Down for the Third Time”.

Watch

Play: Bobby Caldwell – My Flame (official audio)

“Sky’s the Limit”

In 1997, producer Clark Kent built The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Sky’s the Limit,” featuring 112, on a sample of “My Flame,” and Bobby shares the writing credit. Released on Life After Death and as a single in November 1997, it reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 as part of a triple A-side with “Going Back to Cali” and “Kick in the Door,” and No. 35 in the UK. Its Spike Jonze video cast children as Biggie and his crew.

Sampled again

Producers have kept coming back to the song. Ella Mai’s “One Day,” from her 2016 EP Time, is one of the more recent records built on “My Flame.”